August 30, 2017

Issue No. 367 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a leadership book that John Maxwell delayed writing until he was 60 (until he had the requisite life experience), plus a two-buck Kindle book on improving your meetings. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and read recent book reviews on this blog page. Plus, what’s the Bible Incubator? Visit the webpage from CrossSection.

Invest 2 Bucks to Improve Every Meeting

What can you get for two bucks? Even Trader Joe’s “two buck chuck” is now three bucks. Maybe $2.00 will snatch a cheap fidget spinner. I can buy almost 2,000 staples (a half box) at Staples—not bad.

But this is the deal of the decade: Invest $1.99 for a Kindle book and you’ll immediately improve your meetings (guaranteed!). Wow! See today’s featured book.

“I confess I’ve wanted to write this book for almost a decade. In a way, I’ve been working on it for most of my life. But I promised myself that I would not sit down and write it until I turned 60. In February of 2007, I reached that milestone and began writing.”

Oops! Alert to all my friends and colleagues who I’ve encouraged to write books: Wait until you’re 60! With the proliferation of books today (some good, many not so good), that may be good wisdom.

Anyway, it was worth the wait. Maxwell does hit gold. Sample chapters: 1. If It’s Lonely at the Top, You’re Not Doing Something Right 4. When You Get Kicked in the Rear, You Know You’re Out in Front 6. The Best Leaders Are Listeners 7. Don’t Send Your Ducks to Eagle School 12. Your Biggest Mistake Is Not Asking What Mistake You’re Making 16. People Quit People, Not Companies 26. People Will Summarize Your Life in One Sentence—Pick It Now

This is brilliant! John Maxwell has packaged the 26 chapters in Leadership Gold into 26 mini-chapter Amazon Kindle books.

So…would you spend two bucks to improve your meetings? Of course you would!Click now!

Here’s a taste of Lesson 18, “The Secret to a Good Meeting Is the Meeting Before the Meeting” from my 2008 review:

Bucket No. 20 in Mastering the Management Buckets is “The Meetings Bucket,” so I was excited to read the chapter, “The Secret to a Good Meeting Is the Meeting Before the Meeting," in John Maxwell’s book. He credits his meeting management wisdom to Olan Hendrix (the first president of ECFA), one of his mentors. That blessed me because Olan’s mentoring saved my leadership! (See my confession on page 17 of my book.)

In 16 quick-reading pages, Maxwell builds the case for turning routine meetings into productive action-oriented gatherings. Following the counsel of Hendrix, he writes that the meeting before the meeting: 1) helps you receive buy-in, 2) helps followers to gain perspective, 3) increases your influence, 4) helps you develop trust, and 5) avoids your being blindsided.

The “no surprises” rule is critical for the key people in each meeting—and typically that means you must meet with them in advance. Maxwell preaches: “If you can’t have the meeting before the meeting, don’t have the meeting. If you do have the meeting before the meeting, but it doesn’t go well, don’t have the meeting. If you have the meeting before the meeting and it goes as well as you hoped, then have the meeting!” (Read the review for my 2011 book-of-the-year.)

Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) How many hours per week are you in meetings? How much training (books, audio, or workshops) have you had in the art of leading or attending meetings?2) Pop Quiz! Ask your team members to identify three values of having the “meeting before the meeting.”

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Prune Sick Meetings! Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit

If a routine meeting is “sick and not getting well,” Cloud offers this pruning example:“We have tried repeatedly to use these times for forecasting, and it just never works. We can’t get the information we need as the discussion progresses, and even though we have tried, it is confusing and a waste. Let’s stop using this meeting to do that.” (Read the review for my 2011 book-of-the-year.)

For more meeting resources, including Worksheet #20.1: "Weekly Update to My Supervisor,” the most requested template in all of the 20 buckets, visit the Meetings Bucket webpage.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As a board member and raving fan of Christian Community Credit Union (a non-profit), we proudly list the credit union as a sponsor at no charge. And...in this issue we also salute Bible Incubator, an initiative of CrossSection.

August 18, 2017

Issue No. 366 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a reminder/rerun about your best/worst judgment call—plus a new book on leadership and why you can never read enough books on leadership! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and read recent book reviews on this blog page.

"Over-Managing: One of the Cardinal Sins of Leadership"

In the introduction to Scott Rodin’s Steward Leader Meditations, author Richard Kriegbaum reminds us of “…the challenging reality that leadership is a complex field and no one resource can meet all the needs of every leader in every situation.”

Amen. That’s why leaders soak up leadership books, blogs and podcasts—(even though our bookshelves are over-loaded) because we forget more than we learn, and we walk the talk imperfectly.

The authors call judgment the proverbial elephant on the table—because it’s rarely addressed. “Without a deeper and more compelling understanding of how leaders exercise judgment, the study of leadership can never be complete.”

“Take any leader, a U.S. president, a Fortune 500 CEO, a big league coach, wartime general, you name it. Chances are you remember them for their best or worst judgment call.” Examples: Harry Truman (atom bomb), Nixon (Watergate), Bill Clinton (Monica), Coca-Cola’s Robert Goizueta (New Coke), and Carly Fiorina (“for destroying HP’s redoubtable culture”).

The stories and anecdotes are rich, sometimes page-turning (wow—they do not like Fiorina). The 100-page “Handbook for Leadership Judgment” is a model for what’s missing from other brain-dead business books.

Whew! Just when you think you can preach and teach Leadership 401, Hans Finzel writes another gem. He is so gifted at connecting the leadership dots, like this one:

“Over-managing—one of the cardinal sins of leadership.”

Here’s another one: Why resilience is different from persistence. (Read this!)

On accessibility: “Even Jesus had an open-door policy.”

And this gut-check: “Vulnerability and accessibility are joined at the hip.” You’ll use his chart on the difference between “shepherds” and “hired hands” when discerning who to hire—and you’ll borrow “what servant leadership is not” for your next staff talk.

This is a jam-packed treasure chest of wisdom and fresh insights, oozing with the right blend of pokes-in-the-ribs…and grace.

But one more poke: I wrote a chapter on The Delegation Bucket in Mastering the Management Buckets, but I should have delegated the writing to Finzel! His gems: • “Sloppy delegation is one of the greatest sins of leadership. There seems to be no mistake a leader makes that spreads more misery to followers.” • “The lack of good delegation is rooted in fear in the leader.” • “Delegation should match each worker’s follow-through ability.”

And…don’t miss his “10 Great Tips on Awesome Delegation,” including “Let go of your desire to do it better yourself.”

This book is perfect for mentoring/coaching a new leader or manager—but is also a convicting reminder to experienced leaders. His 10-point acronym is memorable:

"L"Is for Listen and Learn"E" Is for Emotional Intelligence"A"Is for Accessibility"D" Is for Determination"E" Is for Effective Communication "R"Is for Resilience"S" Is for Servant Attitude"H" Is for Hands-Off Delegation"I" Is for Integrity"P" Is for the Power of Humility

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Top Ten Ways to Be a Great Leader, by Hans Finzel. (And thanks to David C Cook, the publisher, for providing a review copy.)Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) In the chapter, “H” Is for Hands-Off Delegation, Finzel lists four questions every follower asks. What would you list as those four questions?2) Finzel says there are five building blocks of EQ (emotional intelligence, the “E” in LEADERSHIP). How are your skills sets in self-perception, self-expression, interpersonal, decision making, and stress management? Which one is your strongest and which one is your weakest? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit

The Delegation Bucket in Mastering the Management Buckets challenges leaders to “be experts at appropriate delegation.” The “monkey” book will tell you how to do that. The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Ken Blanchard, William Oncken, Jr. (the original creator of the Monkey workshop), and Hal Burrows, is a classic—and odds are high that many of your team members are not leveraging the big question at the end of every meeting: “OK…who’s got the monkey?”

For more delegation resources, including Worksheet #16.2: "Point Person Assignment Sheet (never hold a meeting, or leave a meeting, without updating this invaluable project tracker). Visit the Delegation Bucket webpage.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As a board member and raving fan of Christian Community Credit Union (a non-profit), we proudly list the credit union as a sponsor at no charge. And...in this issue we also salute Bible Incubator, an initiative of CrossSection.

August 08, 2017

Issue No. 365 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a reminder/rerun about strategy, and a LOL contrarian book for church leaders and board members. (See my Starbucks gift card offer!) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and read recent book reviews on this blog page.

"Sameness: A Recipe for Mediocrity"

Most summers, I take a break and feature reruns of previous book reviews from my bulging office bookcases. Not this summer…no siree (or is it “No, Siri?”). Instead, this month I’m running a series of short-and-sweet book reviews AND a pithy quotation or thought from a previous review. I'll try to inspire you, but you’ll need to do the heavy lifting. Here goes:

Lafley and Martin: “Every industry has tools and practices that become widespread and generic. Some organizations define strategy as benchmarking against competition and then doing the same set of activities but more effectively. Sameness isn’t strategy. It is a recipe for mediocrity.”

Barna Trends 2017 notes that according to a study by “the Center for Missional Research of 12 denominations and church planting networks, one-third of church plants do not survive past four years (32%).”

So buy this book for your pastor and church board members—before they leap before looking. It’s summer, so it’s possible your pastor has not received a “You must read this book!” mandate from a parishioner in what…maybe a week, 10 days?

Here’s the big idea:

Imagine! Just imagine if new churches were led by Holy Spirit-empowered leaders and teams—as described in Acts. And imagine if Christ-followers took seriously JD Pearring’s superb color-commentary on how to change the church planting world. Leading the Other Way is a discerning and paradigm-changing must, must-read.

Plus, it’s laugh-out-loud funny! I mean, when is the last time you enjoyed wisdom from Charles Spurgeon, Mother Teresa, Pogo, and Casey Stengel—all in the same book?

(Pogo? You’ll remember his famous line, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” For more on this “amiable, humble, philosophical, personable, everyman opossum,” read more here.)

Anyway…here’s my offer. Read the first 50 pages of Leading the Other Way—and if you’re not deeply convicted about God’s plan for the local church and/or you don’t laugh-out-loud at the hilarious stories and humor—I’ll send you a Starbucks card.

Example:

“Two church planters are in a bank, when, suddenly, armed robbers burst in, waving guns and yelling for everyone to freeze. While several of the robbers take the money from the tellers, others line up the customers, including the church planters, against a wall, and proceed to take their wallets, watches, and other valuables. While this is going on, one of the church planters jams something into the other church planter’s hand. Without looking down, the second church planter whispers, ‘What is this?’ The first church planter replies, ‘It’s the $100 I owe you.’”

What Is Strategy? Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit

The Strategy Bucket in Mastering the Management Buckets notes Michael Porter’s wisdom: “The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well—not just a few—and integrating among them. If there is no fit among activities, there is no distinctive strategy and little sustainability.”

If you have new team members (or board members) that have never read the classic article from Harvard Business Review, “What Is Strategy?” now’s the time. It’s one of 10 articles in HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategy. Click here to order.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As a board member and raving fan of Christian Community Credit Union (a non-profit), we proudly list the credit union as a sponsor at no charge.